Fedora 16, codename Verne, is available for download and it comes with a lot of new features and bleeding edge software. It comes with the new Gnome Shell 3.2 and KDE Plasma Workspace 4.7 along with Linux kernel 3.1. Grub2 is now used by default and HAL has been completely removed. BTRFS is still not the default file system but you can of course select it during the installation. If you haven't done already download Fedora, install it and let's continue with the post installation guide to configure some basic stuff for Fedora.

*Note: If you want to translate this guide in another language I will be glad to host it here. If you are interested contact me!

*Note: In the following tutorial I am using the command line to install software. Of course you can use the software center to install those applications.

1. Configure sudo

* Modifying sudoers file

Normally if you want to run a command which requires root privileges you first have to type 'su -', type your root password and then type the command. However you can bypass this by using the 'sudo' command. But first you have to configure it like this

su --login -c 'visudo'

Now go below the line:

root ALL=(ALL) ALL

press a, and type the following

username ALL=(ALL) ALL

where username is the username you use to login. Next press Escape. Now, if you want to be prompted for your root password each time you use the sudo command go to this line:

# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

and with your cursor pointing on # press x If you don't want to be prompted for your root password each time you use the sudo command go to this line:

If everything is working properly the command should return the word 'root'.

2. Configure yum

Fedora uses YUM to install and update its software and automatically resolve any dependencies needed.

Fedora software repositories don't include support for MP3, DVD and Video playback/recording because of patent licenses. For this reason you have to install that software from third party repositories. But don't worry, this is pretty easy! ;)

* RPMFusion repository

Now we are going to install the RPM Fusion Repository. RPM Fusion is a merger of the Dribble, Freshrpms and RPM Fusion package repositories for Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. A variety of applications is included in that repository such as codecs for mp3 and unencrypted DVDs, multimedia applications such as mplayer, VLX and xine and the closed source Nvidia and ATi video drivers! RPM Fusion has two main repositories: one named "free" for Open Source Software (as defined by the Fedora Licensing Guidelines) which can't be included in Fedora because it might be patent encumbered in the USone named "nonfree" for non-free software, that is everything else which can't be in free; this includes software with public available source-code that has "no commercial use"-like restrictions.

For the rest of this guide I will assume that you have installed and enabled the RPM Fusion Repository. To install it type:

Fedora 16 uses the open source nouveau driver for nvidia cards. This might be enough for you depending on your needs. Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) is now enabled by default on NVIDIA systems as well, through the Nouveau driver. However if you want to have 3D support in Fedora 12 you must install the binary nvidia drivers. Just type:

4. Install Microsoft fonts

Fedora uses Liberation and DejaVu fonts which are installed by default and look pretty smooth and nice, plus they are open source. If you insist on using the Microsoft fonts you can download and install the msttcorefonts rpm like this.

I built it myself using the msttcore-fonts-2.0-3.spec from Fedora-devel mailing list. It includes Arial, Andale, Comic Sans, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Tahoma, Times, Trebuchet MS, Verdana and Webdings fonts. The procedure just in case you want to build it yourself is the following.

5. MP3 and Audio players

The first time you will try to play an mp3 file Totem Movie Player will come up and it will ask you to search for the mp3 decoder. As long as you have enabled the RPM Fusion repo as mentioned before it will find it and install it automatically. Just like that! If you still want to do it the manuall way...! or install an additional application continue reading below.

* Rhythmbox

I believe that Rhythmbox is a better mp3 player than the default Totem for Gnome users. You can find it under Applications -> Sound & Video -> Rhythmbox Music Player. If you don't have it, to install it type:

su -c 'yum install gstreamer rhythmbox'

To make all mp3 files open by default with Rhytmbox right click on an mp3 file and select 'Open with Other Application...'. Click on Rhytmbox Music Player and you're done. To add mp3 and other audio support type:

amaroK is an excellent audio/mp3 player for KDE. Of course you can install it under Gnome or any other Desktop Environment too. To install it and add mp3 support type:

su -c 'yum install amarok phonon-backend-gstreamer'

* Audacious

Audacious is another audio player similar to old winamp 2.x. To install it type:

su -c 'yum install audacious audacious-plugins'

6. DVD & Video

**Note: To install many of the following packages you must have the RPM Fusion Repository enabled as described here . If you have most probably you will prompted to search automatically for the needed codecs. They will automatically installed. As simple as that!

* DVD playback

In order to play DVDs you must install the appropriate codecs.

su -c 'yum install libdvdread libdvdnav lsdvd'

Those files are enough for playing your non encrypted DVDs. However if you want to decrypt an encrypted DVD you need libdvdcss which isn't included in RPM Fusion because of legal issues in some countries such as the US. As mentioned in RPM Fusion . Opinions between the members of RPM Ffusion differ on the legality of libdvdcss, however no one is ready to vouch for it resuming the legal responsibilities. Therefore libdvdcss is being dropped. See also the comments on legal issues in the link above.

When you will try to open a video file with Totem media player it will ask you to search for the necessary codecs. They will be automatically installed! If you have previously set up mp3 playback additional packages would have been installed as dependencies. These packages include video codecs such as xvidcore, ffmpeg and other.

Fedora 16 has installed Totem Movie Player. If you want to play DVD files also with totem type:

su -c 'yum install totem-xine xine-lib xine-lib-extras-freeworld'

* Mplayer/SMPlayer

I prefer mplayer and smplayer (mplayer's GUI) for video playback. It supports almost any video type, external subtitles as well as DVD playback as long as you have the needed codecs installed as shown previously.

su -c 'yum install mplayer smplayer'

Open smplayer from Applications > Sound & Video > SMPlayer

* VLC

VLC (Video Lan Client) supports almost any video type without the need of installing external codecs.

su -c 'yum install vlc'

* kaffeine

kaffeine is another KDE media player that uses the xine engine.

su -c 'yum install kaffeine xine xine-lib xine-lib-extras-freeworld'

* RealPlayer

You can download RealPlayer rpm from here . Just choose to open it with the Package Installer. If this fails to install it manually open a terminal, go the directory you downloaded it and type:

Restart Mozilla Firefox or Chrome and you should have flash plugin support. However consider using HTML5 at least for watching YouTube videos!

8. Java

Fedora 16 comes with java from the OpenJDK project. It is very easy to install it through yum (if it hasn't already been installed) and it works just fine. Try it! If you still want to install the Oracle (ex SUN) Java go a few lines below.

* OpenJDK

su -c 'yum install java-*-openjdk java-*-openjdk-plugin'

* Oracle's JAVA JRE

First go to the official Java site and download the latest JRE (Java SE 7 Update 1 at the moment).

Fedora 32bit

Select Linux as Platform and download the jre-7u1-linux-i586.rpm file.

Now open a terminal and type:

su -
rpm -ivh jre-7u1-linux-i586.rpm

Fedora 64bit

Select Linux x64 as Platform and download the jre-7u1-linux-x64.rpm file.

Comments (32)

Why show them sudo and not use it?

The very first tip (sudo) is a step in the right direction, but all tips (except for #6) afterwards you use 'su -' instead of the 'sudo' you just had them setup. Why?

Also in the sudo tip... there is no need for the addition of the user line if you add the user to the wheel group.

usermod -G wheel

Then as you said uncomment the wheel line

wh;eel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

David Dreggors ,
November 10, 2011

+0

...

hmm, ok so the formatting of quote did not preserve the code and basically destroyed my post

try this: usermod -G wheel username

and

wh;eel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

David Dreggors ,
November 10, 2011

+0

...

Most of the actions described here can be done in graphical mode, without command line. You have not specified which repository one needs to add to install Chrome. And then... Chrome installer does all the necessary steps itself.

My review of Fedora 16: Fedora 16 with GNOME is not that bad. There are some drawbacks, but also there are some wins against GNOME3 implementation in Ubuntu.

...

Regarding the repos part you have to be root first. Type su -, give your root password and afterwards you will be able to add files to the yum.repos.d directory.

axel ,
November 15, 2011

+0

repos and evolution

I found a plugin for evolution that allows me to import the .pst so that is solved.

When you say Type su- where do I type it, in the terminal ? I tried that and I still cant modify or add to yum.repo.d

Nigel Cuff ,
November 16, 2011

+0

repos

I should add that I am trying to use the files program to add the file. I also tried using gedit and saving to the yum.repo.d directory.

Can you add it thru the terminal ?

Nigel Cuff ,
November 16, 2011

+0

repos

can you log on as a root user when logging into fedora to do this ? if so please let me know the user name and password to do so.

Nigel Cuff ,
November 16, 2011

-1

...

Which plugin did you find Nigel. Just for future reference.

When you type su - in a terminal afterwards whatever command you type in this terminal is as root. Not anything you are doing in the system. Logging in as root is disabled by default in Fedora and in general you are not advised to log in as root in any linux distro.

To open gedit as root you can type in a terminal su - gedit

axel ,
November 16, 2011

+0

I can't boot with Plymouth

Hi, thanks for the tips! Ich have installed the NVIDIA drivers but i can t boot with plymouth.

...

This package contains the plugin to import Microsoft Personal Storage Table (PST) files used by Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange.

axel ,
November 18, 2011

+1

nvidia

cant get the kmod driver to work. I have a GT218 (g210m) nvidia graphics card, my kernel is 3.1.1-2.fc16.x86_64 and my selinux policies are selinux-policy-3.10.0-57.fc16.noarch.rpm etc so I modified your script above changing 53 to 57. I have followed all the steps above but when i reboot it starts up and gets to the blue fedora logo and then just before the login screen would pop up it goes to script and stalls. Then I have to push ctrl+alt+F2 and remove the kmod driver and then it will start again.

Nigel Cuff ,
November 22, 2011

+1

cannot connect PuTTY to fedora 16.. Help

HI I'm not regular user of fedora.. but now i want to use PuTTY with fedora-16 installed on my virtual box..

when i type ifconfig it shows me lo and p2p1 connection it shows me inet add instead of ip adress

when i try to insert that address in puTTY it gives me Timeout error

As suggested i tried many ways like disabling firewall..

But no use..

Please help me out with this.. M working on big project and this shit happened.. Please suggest.. What to do?

Chaitanya ,
January 04, 2012

+0

...

Chaitanya you want to run puTTY from your host in order to connect to your guest Fedora 16? If I understood correctly what you are trying to do, Fedora must have SSH service running and configured properly.

axel ,
January 06, 2012

+2

Java 64 bit

Hi,

You have mentioned about 64 bit Java this wAY:

Fedora 64bit

Select Linux x64 as Platform and download the jre-7u1-linux-x64.rpm file.

Now open a terminal and type:

su - rpm -ivh jre-7u1-linux-i586.rpm

-----

But the command you have mentioned is of 32 bit. Hope you will correct it? rpm -ivh jre-7u1-linux-x64.rpm

Thanks for the helpful guide.

Sikku ,
February 03, 2012

+0

Helpful guide

This guide was helpful for me to setup my Fedora 16. There is an automated script available with name "easylife" http://easylifeproject.org/It comes handy for startup users.

Sikku ,
February 03, 2012

+0

Folder Lock with Password

Is there any software for folder lock in Fedora..with password security..?????

Surender ,
February 14, 2012

+0

how to enable ssh service in Fedora 16 verne

I am not able to connect to Fedora server via putty . is there a way to enable it?

vaibhav kanchan ,
February 15, 2012

+0

Problem with nvidia, after reboot

Hello

Remember, that after installing the nvidia cards, before rebooting, you should run the nvidia setup program and run the command "nvidia-xconfig" as the message suggests the nvidia setup program. in my notebook driver only worked properly after doing this, before running "nvidia-xconfig" startup failures occurred because of problems in xorg configuration.

Sorry for the english, I am Brazilian.

Lcoyle ,
February 18, 2012

+0

...

Thanks for the heads up Sikku. I have corrected the guide.

As far as I can remember nvidia-xconfig isn't needed any more because xorg.conf is deprecated. Anyway if this worked for you everything is fine.

axel ,
February 26, 2012

+0

installing libdvdcss

Hi my friend Thanks for post this. Its so useful. However I got a question, Hope you can clear this for me, pls. After install the mentioned package as you guide above, I cannot find de file atprpm.repo in /etc/yum/repos.d. There isn't such file there. The output report after install it, OK, apparently, says something like warning RPMDB altered outside of yum I dunno whether it's something to do that whit. I'll add the report just it were useful for you attend my issue. I'd appreciate anyway. Thanks Here the output report